And just to prove it, I’ve recently purchased another shawl pattern: the Brandywine Shawl, by Rosemary Hill. You can check it out on Ravelry, here, or on Romi’s blog — read her post about the pattern here. She is donating $5.00 of the purchase price for each pattern sold to Doctors Without Borders and has set herself quite a goal for the number of patterns she hopes to sell and the amount of money she wants to donate.

So if you think it’s pretty and like me need another shawl in your life, buy the pattern!

Meanwhile, I’m still working on the Chevron Stole.

I am halfway done. I know this because I have just about finished the first skein of yarn, and I bought two skeins. The finished shawl will block out to at least 72″ long, I’m thinking.

Winners!

The great and mighty Random Number Generator has chosen winners to receive copies of my new book! So many of you left a comment (Yowies! 1400+ comments!) that I decided to give away three copies. The winners are Sarah, Jayne, and Kelly-Ann. I’ve emailed the three of you, so if you think one of those individuals might be you, check your email! Thanks to everyone who entered the contest!

Here are some details about the way I pick the winners . . .

I check the total number of comments on the blog post, and then have the generator pick 3 numbers within that number range. In WordPress (my blogging software) it is pretty easy for me to go in and find the comments with the winning numbers because I can display the comments for a particular post 20 on the screen at a time.

Why am I telling you this? I am telling you this because this is the reason why I ask that entries be left in the comments and not emailed to me or sent using the “contact me” form. If one sends me an entry via email or the “contact me” form (which is also emailed to me and in fact sometimes ends up in my spam filter, for whatever reason), the entry is not assigned a number.

I took a picture of the KOARC’s foot the other night, as he was wearing a pair of socks I had made for him.

I noticed what remarkable good shape they are in. This is the sole of the foot:

If you click to enlarge the pic, you’ll see there’s absolutely no sign of wear.

I went back through my blog, and found the project page for this pair, here. The yarn is Regia sock yarn (wool/nylon blend). I made this pair of socks for him in July 2003 — six and a half years ago! Since that time they have been worn regularly, machine washed in hot water, and dried on high heat. That Regia yarn wears pretty darn well, doesn’t it? Can’t ask for much better than that!

The second sock tale . . .

Remember these socks?

I finished them back in November — the Heather and Thistle Socks. They are knit from MacKintosh Yarns lovely lovely Iona fingering weight yarn — it’s 80% superwash merino/10% cashmere/10% nylon. The pattern is now available for sale, at MacKintosh Yarns, here.

The third sock tale . . .

My new sock-in-progress.

This is a design from my upcoming book, Toe-Up Socks for Every Body. They are called “Manly Aran Socks” and I designed them specifically for guys. The socks pictured in the book are knit from Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in the “denim” colorway, lighter than the colorway I’m using. I showed the pic to the KOARC and asked him if he’d like the sample socks knit for the book (he’s the same foot size as the model). He said he’d like them, but he can’t have them until after they go on tour with me this year. (Alternatively, the KOARC could come on tour with me and wear those socks at every event, but then who would take care of Lucy while I’m away from home?)

Anyhow, I figured I’d knit him a pair right now. I’m using Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock, in the “Cookie’s Deep Dark Secret” colorway.

I’m actually a lot further along than the above picture shows.

This colorway is great to knit during daylight, but at night it turns into a dark navy, so I’m knitting blind most of the time. 😉

Another thing . . .

The Argus Shawl pattern is up for sale in my Ravelry store, here (Ravelry link).

This shawlette can be knit from one 100-gram skein of sock yarn and when blocked measures approximately 54” across the top (wingspan) and 25” down the center back.

This pattern is perfect for a beginner knitter who wants to knit lace. The pattern is written in great detail and spells out everything you need to know. The lace is charted in 4 relatively simple charts that are easy to follow.

It is knit from fingering rather than laceweight yarn, which is much easier for a lace newbie to execute. The stitches used are knit and purl, and a few simple lace techniques – yarnover, knit 2 together, and ssk, and sl1 k2tog, psso (which are explained in the pattern).

Like the rest of my Ravelry patterns, I’m donating 50% of my profits through January 31, 2010 to Doctors Without Borders. Thanks to all of you who’ve bought patterns so far!

Lucy sez . . .

“When you go on the road, Daddy stays home with me. This is non-negotiable.”

I hope you all had a great holiday. Lucy and I did! Even my little Droid got a present:

A cellphone beanbag chair!

Here is Lucy’s favorite new toy:

A tear strip from a box. Gotta love kitties!

Right before Christmas I put my Talisman Shawl pattern up for sale on Ravelry for $5.00 for a pdf download. Here is the direct link.

And I finished Ishbel. Here it is on Gwendolyn, shown draped over the Talisman Shawl, which is draped over my Exonumist’s Shawl:

A close-up:

And a floor shot:

I knit the larger size and used Dragonfly Fibers Dragon Sock in the Green Riptide colorway, on a U.S. 6 needle. It used about 1.5 skeins of the yarn. I didn’t wet-block it — just steamed it with my trusty steam-iron.

The Faro Easy Shawl pattern is now available for sale in my Ravelry shop, or from the link below, for $5.00 (delivered via pdf download):

An easy Faroese-style shawl knit from the bottom up that takes 600 – 650 yards of dk/light worsted yarn.

Size:
Unblocked: 54” across the top edge (wingspan), 22” down the center back
Lightly Blocked: 72” across the top edge (wingspan), 26” down the center back

On To the Shawl at Hand

Actually, I’m cheating. This is a photo from Sunday night. I’ve made a bit more progress since then.

The lace looks a bit dense, but when blocked will open up nicely. It may look complex but is pretty easy to execute — just yarnovers, k2tog, and “sl 1 k2tog psso.” The only tricky bit is that you are sometimes working a decrease into a yarnover from the previous row. If you don’t have pointy needles, it can be a bit tricky. But I am using my nicely pointy Addi Lace needles.

My other project:

A sock from Madeline Tosh sock yarn, in the Malachite colorway. This is my current commuter knitting. I’d have a bit more progress but this morning noticed something boneheaded I had done about 6 rounds down, so spent the morning commute dropping down and fixing it.

New Kitty!

Look at my new kitty!

I installed Snow Leopard on my iMac yesterday. Installation went without a hitch and took a little under an hour. It’s too early for me to comment on the changes this OS upgrade hath wrought, but everything seems to be working properly, so that’s a good thing. I have noticed that things are faster all-over

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